Participants of martial arts, as in Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, karate, and kick boxing require a means of maintaining, improving, and accurately evaluating kicking and punching skills. Instructors also require a means of demonstrating various blows without risking injury to themselves or others. To achieve the aforementioned, boards commonly held by onlookers are used as targets. However, manual board holders fearful of flying boards, broken fingers, or broken wrists resulting from the power delivered to break boards may unconsciously pull away from the blow. Thereby, ultimately increasing the risk of injury to both the board holder and breaker from an off target blow. An accurate means of evaluating individual performance is also difficult because sparring participants typically reduce the force of their kicks and punches to avoid permanent damage to their opponent. In addition, hours upon hours of individual training on speed, timing, accuracy and power are necessary for maintaining and improving individual proficiency on the various techniques employed in martial arts. However, the amount and quality of individual training time is often restricted for most participants due to the inability to secure the assistance of a skilled board holder.
Various patents have been granted on devices which address and eliminate the need for manual board holders. Representative of the prior art devices include the following.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,334 to Partlo discloses a device which provides a martial arts board holding structure which substantially reduces the possibility of injury to the hand or foot of the user, while minimizing the possibility of damage to the device itself. Furthermore, this device is adjustable and can hold from one to a substantial number of boards to be broken. A pedestal stand is attached to the board securing the frame member so as to support same at a desired position above the floor surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,045 to Heberer discloses an apparatus for positioning and securing at least one board at a selected height and angle. This apparatus also replaces the need of a human holder in the practice of breaking boards in martial arts competition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,184 to Tobin discloses a kicking practice apparatus which basically provides a free-standing support frame and an arm pivotally mounted to the frame and holding a padded target. The apparatus is portable so as to allow it to be set-up and subsequently taken down by one person.
While these practice devices would appear to operate reasonably well and generally achieve their objectives under the limited range of operating condition for which they were designed, those devices embody one or more of the following drawbacks. When considered individually, the prior art devices are limited as to the array of punches and kicks which can be practiced due to the restricted elevation and/or angle these devices can duplicate. Moreover, devices which condition specialized skills tend to become spread throughout a training center and often when found are in disrepair.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,772 to Stangle recognized the disadvantages of similar board holding devices and discloses a unitary structure which provides training in a variety of activities for one or more individuals simultaneously.
The immediately foregoing training apparatus is closest in purpose to the present invention in as much as it provides a unitary physical conditioning structure. However, the training units of the prior structure are mounted at fixed positions and provide conditioning for only the most basic kicks and punches. Moreover, the framed structure of said apparatus is not designed to accept additional training units.
The aforementioned U.S. Patents are illustrative of the prior art training devices. There remains a need for a universal martial arts training apparatus which does not possess the disadvantages associated with the training devices known to date.